Huge crowds came out to the Roy Rogers in Brick to meet Baltimore Orioles Halle of Famer Cal Ripken as he helped the franchise celebrate its 50th anniversary.
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New Hawkeye Austin DeSanto, right, was the only person to beat Iowa?s Spencer Lee, left, in high school, in a March 2017 match shown here.
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New Hawkeye Austin DeSanto, right, was the only person to beat Iowa's Spencer Lee, left, in high school. Lee, to be fair, was wrestling on a freshly torn ACL in that March 2017 match shown here.(Photo: Chris Dunn, Chris Dunn, York Daily Record)Buy Photo

Rutgers missed out on a top-tier wrestling transfer over the weekend, while the University of Iowa's already-stout lineup got stronger at a key weight class.

Drexel transfer Austin DeSanto, a round-of-12 finisher at 133 pounds as a true freshman at the NCAA Championships in March, announced Sunday that he would enroll at Iowa. DeSanto, 30-7 last season, is immediately eligible and has three years remaining.

For Iowa, it means a legitimate national title contender at 133 pounds, which was the only weight class the Hawkeyes failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships. At those NCAAs, Iowa boasted five All-Americans and finished third as a team behind fellow-Big Ten and national powers Penn State and Ohio State.

For Rutgers, it missed on a wrestler that, like Nick Suriano a year ago, had the potential to shift perceptions of Scott Goodale's budding program. On the flip side, DeSanto would have shown up in Piscataway with some baggage.

The lasting memory of DeSanto's NCAA run in March was a quarterfinal loss to Michigan's Stevan Micic. In that match, a 13-1 major decision, DeSanto attempted an illegal bar. DeSanto then lost to Scarlet Knights redshirt senior Scott Delvecchio on the consolation side, ending his tournament. Shortly after the season, DeSanto announced his intention to transfer and was given a full release.

Big Ten wrestling opponents announced, no Rutgers-Penn State

The Big Ten announced its conference schedule on Monday, and one noticeable absence on Rutgers' slate is Penn State.

Still, the Scarlet Knights' schedule will be rugged. They will host Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Wisconsin at the RAC, and will travel to Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota and Purdue. Dates and times will be announced at a later date.

Six of those seven matches will be against teams that finished ranked in the final USA/NWCA Coaches Poll.

Last season, Rutgers averaged 5,070 fans for six home dual meets at the RAC. That figure ranked fourth nationally in home attendance, behind only Iowa, Penn State and Ohio State. The 8,321 that showed up to watch Penn State defeat Rutgers, 25-15, on Jan. 28 represented a RAC record for college wrestling.